Kalamian Walton, Silver Teaspoon. Circa 1938. Donated to Wikimedia Commons by the National Gallery of Art. Licensed under CCO 1.0.
Is there a single silver teaspoon that has not stirred up the memory of seduction and rage? Is there a Fräulein in the house without vague, disabling despair? Ah, the fresh and full aroma of hysteria under a constellation of coffee cups!
May the waiter (calm, contemptuous, organized) please bring to the table the shivering Sacher torte with its dark, oily cacao.
Observe Herr K. in his great coat lined with fur, gazing at Frau K.’s petticoats, white as frothing alpine milk. Is he still in love with his mother? Does he wish to murder his father, who regularly engaged in bestial coitus with the governess?
Today Frau K. likes her coffee the Turkish way. As she lifts the small cup to her lips, her right arm freezes in midair. Oh no! Is this the same arm that pulled a handsome Herr closer to her breast when they embraced on the big wheel at the fair in the park?
Near-death trance, vertigo, and strudel under the new clean light of electricity!
Observe Frau O., who, revived by the libido of yeast in the Kaiser bread rolls, is in flirtation with the family doctor. This kindly gentleman administers vitamin injections to her sister on the last Tuesday of every month. Watch how he gallantly presses Frau O.’s fingers to his lips and then rises to play billiards in the next room. Tomorrow at noon, these white-haired industrialists will send their clever, unhappy daughters (parental conflicts, the laws of society, lecherous uncles) to the curer of souls at Berggasse 19. There, they will learn that desire must not always win the day, but it always does.
There will forever be a snake in the cake box.
Deborah Levy writes fiction, plays, and poetry. She is the author of several novels including August Blue, Hot Milk and Swimming Home, alongside a formally innovative “living autobiography” trilogy. She has also written for The Royal Shakespeare Company and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
From The Position of Spoons, a collection of Levy’s nonfiction that will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October.